Australian tennis player John Millman, as per reports, will request his match against Roger Federer is not played on Rod Laver Arena. Millman is supposedly expected to ask the Australian Open tournament director to place his third-round match against Roger Federer on Melbourne Arena in a bid to avoid the two main show courts.
The 30-year-old player feels he would get more support on a court that is open to anybody with a ground pass rather than Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena, which is only available to those who have purchased premium tickets.
Earlier on Tuesday, another Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios stated that Melbourne Arena was his favourite venue in the world and requested that all his early matches are played there.
And now Millman will ask for a similar request, although it is likely that his request is turned down.
“Of course, but I don’t think Craig will take me too serious,” Millman said of the request.
“More so just to throw a spanner in the works for Roger. I don’t know if he knows the other courts.
“He hits on the outside ones, but he hasn’t played too many. I don’t know if he would have played too many matches on the outside ones.
“Look, I love a vocal crowd. Obviously the matches I played, probably two really special courts, Show Court 3 and Melbourne Arena, are notorious for the crowd support you get there, the vocal Aussies.
“I very much consider myself, and I think the people who know me, know that I’m just your typical Aussie bloke. So I’m one of the people.
“The people get the ground passes and the people go to those courts.
“Look, I know it’s a little corporate at Rod Laver, but it’s still a pretty cool court to play on.”
Millman had earlier defeated Federer in the 2018 US Open fourth round but he feels the circumstances are completely different this time around.
He explained: “Going into New York, going into that slam, I was really worried. I was actually playing I thought pretty average tennis. Really was high stress.
“I pulled out two weeks before, I had a back problem. I think I lost the first round in Winston-Salem.
“In terms of my performances, this year has actually been great. 2020 so far I’ve won plenty of matches. I think that’s really cool to have that good bit of momentum.
“When I did play Roger, that was a round of 16 matches. I’ve gone even one further round. By that stage, I felt really good about the conditions. I was really feeling the ball well there.
“You never really know, to be honest with you, till you walk out on the court and hit the first few balls, kind of try to settle yourself in as early as possible because these guys are such good frontrunners.
“You start to realise, ‘Oh, okay, tonight it’s actually feeling pretty good’. You don’t really know till you go out there.
“Look, I’m really happy so far with how the season’s gone. This is as good of a season start as I’ve had for I think that I’ve ever had. In that regard, feeling pretty good about it.”
